Most movies get one shot at a theatrical run and either become blockbusters or sink into the imaginary vault in every producer’s heart where their failures live. They might be rediscovered in some far-flung corner of Netflix, but only the special few who rise to the top of the trending list will ever get another chance at your local indie theater. Viewers who happened to be among the handful who saw their first run have a claim to fame almost as good as the movie itself.
It’s in one of those indie theaters where user jimmypfromthe5thgala has recently been spending a lot of time. “The 1986 BMX classic, Rad, is coming back to theaters for one night,” they explained, which got them “thinking about all the films I have seen in the theater over the many, many decades I have been viewing films in a movie theater,” some of which have risen from anonymity to infamy. They asked r/Movies, “What is the most obscure film you have seen in theaters?” and it turns out Reddit has been witness to some serious film history.